I'll try to be a little more active in the thread this season...no promises though since I'm in the midst of coaching (outside of the game).

GNE has three openings, University is full up for the season. Haven't scrolled to check on anyone else yet -- post any changes of significance from your leagues here as we wait for recruiting to start.

The North Coast is up to ten humans after adding two new coaches. tarzan1, who appears to be a newbie, takes over at Thiel to fill up the west division while some guy named jsajsa is the new coach at Kenyon. He's supposed to be a decent coach, I heard something about 6 of the last 9 D3 titles in Crum. I wasn't really paying attention.

Yeah, this is getting insane. First bunkerbuster joined Rupp... now jsajsa??? Make it stop!

It would be interesting to me to know how many coaches with multiple national titles we have in Rupp compared to all other worlds... I only have one D3 team now, but Rupp D3 seems more difficult than I remember Iba being (granted, that was a long time ago), and definitely more top heavy than Phelan.

No excuses here, but one thing we have noticed when the UAA is full --- you often end up battling within league more for recruits. Those on the outer geographical areas of the league may not have this occur as much.... While it's great to have a full conference, and leads to more recruiting $$, it can make things congested.

Posted by brianxavier on 1/13/2014 1:04:00 PM (view original):Yeah, this is getting insane. First bunkerbuster joined Rupp... now jsajsa??? Make it stop!

It would be interesting to me to know how many coaches with multiple national titles we have in Rupp compared to all other worlds... I only have one D3 team now, but Rupp D3 seems more difficult than I remember Iba being (granted, that was a long time ago), and definitely more top heavy than Phelan.

No excuses here, but one thing we have noticed when the UAA is full --- you often end up battling within league more for recruits. Those on the outer geographical areas of the league may not have this occur as much.... While it's great to have a full conference, and leads to more recruiting $$, it can make things congested.

The Midwest region is definitely getting more crowded here. The Ohio Conference landed a few new coaches, including nachopuzzle. The NCAC got stronger with jsajsa coming on board. On one side, the University Conference is more spread out. But the states are a lot smaller as well, so maybe it's just smoke and mirrors.

As far as competitiveness of worlds, I still think D3 Wooden is by far the toughest, with basically 7 "power conferences." Recruiting is downright stressful in Wooden. I'm not in Naismith, but I'd guess Naismith and Rupp are pretty close to even and if they aren't, Rupp is closing the gap quickly. Though, Naismith has without a doubt the best D3 conference (University) probably in the history of the game. I think the 12 coaches have something like 40 combined titles and they regularly rack up something like $8K+ every post-season. That's just crazy for D3.

Love seeing the big names jump in the fray! I would put Rupp above The Naismoth I remember when I came into the game. The University and Freedom conferences are loaded there...which made learning the game brutal at Maine Presque Isle. Who am I kidding, I am still learning the game.

Posted by rednu on 1/13/2014 2:04:00 PM (view original):Love seeing the big names jump in the fray! I would put Rupp above The Naismoth I remember when I came into the game. The University and Freedom conferences are loaded there...which made learning the game brutal at Maine Presque Isle. Who am I kidding, I am still learning the game.

I'm pretty sure learning the game at UMPI is awful no matter the world. If I'm not mistaken, that's the Northeastern most school in D3. In other words, you have a distance advantage on no one, and Maine has 0 D2 schools. I coached there for about 10 seasons in Allen. If the NAC hadn't brought in $6K+ in bonus cash every season, recruiting from there would be near impossible. Was very, very frustrating.

Posted by brianxavier on 1/13/2014 1:04:00 PM (view original):Yeah, this is getting insane. First bunkerbuster joined Rupp... now jsajsa??? Make it stop!

It would be interesting to me to know how many coaches with multiple national titles we have in Rupp compared to all other worlds... I only have one D3 team now, but Rupp D3 seems more difficult than I remember Iba being (granted, that was a long time ago), and definitely more top heavy than Phelan.

No excuses here, but one thing we have noticed when the UAA is full --- you often end up battling within league more for recruits. Those on the outer geographical areas of the league may not have this occur as much.... While it's great to have a full conference, and leads to more recruiting $$, it can make things congested.

Hopefully I did not miss anybody here Sorry about the last entry, but I just wanted to see myself on this list.

Posted by rednu on 1/13/2014 2:04:00 PM (view original):Love seeing the big names jump in the fray! I would put Rupp above The Naismoth I remember when I came into the game. The University and Freedom conferences are loaded there...which made learning the game brutal at Maine Presque Isle. Who am I kidding, I am still learning the game.

I'm pretty sure learning the game at UMPI is awful no matter the world. If I'm not mistaken, that's the Northeastern most school in D3. In other words, you have a distance advantage on no one, and Maine has 0 D2 schools. I coached there for about 10 seasons in Allen. If the NAC hadn't brought in $6K+ in bonus cash every season, recruiting from there would be near impossible. Was very, very frustrating.

Yep, it is WAY up there in nowhereville (I initially grabbed it because Wooster was taken in the world and Presque Isle was someplace I'd always wanted to visit), and even the 300-mile circle misses out-of-state population centers. Any decent in-state recruits are always at a distance disadvantage if anyone occupies the coaching chair at any of the other Maine schools and given the sheer number of D3 conferences elsewhere in New England you're battling someone in a hole there as well. If there's a harder program to coach in D3, I'm not sure what it would be (I've done Sul Ross St. at D3 too, but the challenge there paled to UMPI). I think my biggest saving grace, especially early, in recruiting was having played enough different computerized sports sims over the years to know that "when in doubt, grab speed" is rarely a bad strategy. I had a decent stable of upperclassmen from the human coach who had the team 2 seasons previous and targeted speed and defense with my first class.

well, I have zero in Rupp... so I am right there with ya bullman! the scary thing is with altertnative IDs, spasticity has even more... I am not sure what other alias are out there. I have 4 total, one under another ID.

thanks for the report bullman... how does that compare to wooden, does anyone know?